4A softball: Augusta’s bid for perfect season falls short
Bases loaded, no outs, bottom of the seventh inning in the Class 4A softball championship game with the winning run at the plate.
There was no place Augusta or DeSoto would’ve rather been on Friday afternoon — the Orioles because of their yearlong propensity to rally with big hits to win games, the Wildcats because of their star pitcher, Kansas signee Sophia Temple.
"There’s a pitcher on the mound for DeSoto saying ’I dare you to hit me’ and a team at bat that always expects to win," Augusta coach Shane Steinkamp said. "We had our shot, we just came up short."
Temple battled back from near-disaster, striking out the next two batters — Katy Nordman and Casady Marlnee — and getting Abby Tipton to fly out for the final out of the game, giving DeSoto a 7-4 win and its first softball state title since 1998.
Temple pitched every inning of every game for the Wildcats this season — her 19-3 record matching that of her team. She struck out 10 and gave up 8 hits in the championship game.
DeSoto lost to Andale/Garden Plain in last year’s championship game. Augusta finished the season 23-1, with Brooke Eberhardt taking the loss.
"Second place sucks … nobody came up here to finish second," Steinkamp said. "But I’m proud of what these kids did this year. They worked harder than any team I’ve ever coached and I pushed them harder than any team I’ve ever coached.”
DeSoto took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a solo home run from Lauren Mabe off of Eberhardt, and 3-0 in the second inning when Sarah Salvini hit a two-run home run.
Mabe’s RBI double in the third inning scored Hunter Klamm for a 4-0 lead, but Augusta got one run back in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from Marlnee that scored Nordman.
"Augusta is a great team, but that type of power hitting doesn’t surprise me," DeSoto coach Junelle Woolery said. "(DeSoto) worked extremely hard in the offseason, not just in the cages but in the weight room."
Klamm’s solo home run in the top of the fifth off Megan Hayes put DeSoto up 5-1, but the Orioles answered back in the bottom of the inning with a three-run home run by senior Kalie Robinson that made the score 5-4.
"That’s kind of what we’ve done all year, we’ve had people step up and make big plays when we need them," Robinson said. "I was really confident we’d at least tie it at the end … obviously it’s a very difficult way to end the season."
A two-RBI single by Ashley Mars gave DeSoto a 7-4 lead in the top of the seventh. Temple regained her composure after giving up a single and two walks to load the bases in the bottom of the inning.
"I just started praying, breathing, trying not to think about how bad my arm hurt," Temple said. "Our drive this whole season has been the feeling we had after we lost in the championship game last year. First goal was to make it to state, second goal was to win state."
Pratt bounced back from its 4-3 semifinal loss to Augusta by pounding out 13 hits in a 5-3 win over Paola in the third-place game.
DeSoto 7, Augusta 4
Championship
| DeSoto | 121 | 010 | 2 | — | 7 11 5 |
| Augusta | 000 | 130 | 0 | — | 4 8 1 |
W —Templin. L — Eberhardt. HR-DeSoto, Mabe, Salvini, Klamm; Augusta, Robinson.
Pratt 5, Paola 3
Third place
| Pratt | 101 | 110 | 2 | — | 5 13 2 |
| Paola | 210 | 000 | 0 | — | 3 4 1 |
W — Hill. L — Morgan.
Augusta 4, Pratt 3
Semifinal
| Pratt | 000 | 200 | 1 | — | 3 8 0 |
| Augusta | 040 | 000 | x | — | 4 6 0 |
W —Hayes. L — Hill. HR — Pratt, Becker.
This story was originally published May 24, 2013 at 6:56 PM.